The Power of Words
by Marla Fair
Summary: Written for the Bonanza Boomers Ponderosa Prospects. We were give the phrase 'Even a ranch full of Cartwrights and ranch hands can be a lonely place at Christmastime. to work with. Christmas is near and Hoss finds his little brother missing from his bed. There's only one place Joe would go...


The Power of Words

oooooooooo

It was dark as a funeral scarf and so cold the cows were like to give up icicles. The snow was coming down as if Heaven had a hand shovel. Hoss Cartwright was none too happy to be out in it, but there weren't nothin' for it.

Little brother was missin'.

He'd kind of expected somethin' like this. Come mornin' little brother had been smilin'. Noon saw him hootin' and hollerin' and havin' fun. Just afore supper Joe went all kind of quiet-like and then started snarlin' like a sick pup.

He'd asked him about it, but Joe wasn't talkin'. Little brother just shrugged and said he was 'fine'. The last he saw of him, Joe was headin' for the barn. He figured that was where he'd find him now.

At least he _hoped _that was where he'd find him.

If not it meant a trek through the frigid night and he figured, by the time he got where he was going, he'd mad enough to hog-tie Little Joe and throw him over his saddle.

It wouldn't be the first time he'd done it.

It took Hoss a full five minutes to reach the barn. The ranch hands kept stoppin' him on the way to wish him a 'Merry Christmas.' Pa'd done given them a couple of days off to spend with their families and most of them was mountin' up and ridin' out. As he lifted the latch, their foreman called out.

"You lookin' for Little Joe?"

"Sure am."

"I saw him ridin' out about an hour ago. Headin' west"

He should of know'd.

He _did _know.

Dang his little brother's ornery hide! It was gonna be a long, cold ride.

oooooooooo

The land their pa owned was beautiful, and no more so than when the trees was knee-deep in snow. Above his head the stars twinkled. The man in the moon, well, he must have caught the joke on account of he was laughin' too. Pushin' through the blue-white drifts put the big man in mind of his pa, sailin' the seas all those years ago. Pa talked about the endless waves. That's what was before him. Endless white waves leadin' up to a shore. By that shore was a lonely hill.

On that hill was a lonely boy.

Hoss tethered his horse to a tree a few yards out from the grave. He'd thought for sure he'd be mad by the time he arrived, but seein' Little Joe with his curly head restin' on his mama's grave made him sad. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve Day and they was havin' a party. Every hand that wasn't spendin' the holiday with their own was invited, along with just about everybody in Virginia city. Tomorrow night their house would be bustin' its buttons with men and women and pretty girls. Everybody would be there.

Everybody but the one person little brother _needed _to be there.

"I'm surprised the Paiutes didn't carry you off," Little Joe said without lookin' at him. "No one could have missed you stompin' through the snow in those ten gallon boots of yours."

"Make that 'twelve', little brother," Hoss said as he left the trees behind. "I got at least a gallon of snow in each."

"Yeah? Well, it serves you right, comin' out in the middle of a storm."

Hoss took a seat on a downed tree. "Why don't you tell me what _you're _doin' out in it?"

His brother shrugged.

"That ain't much of an answer. And, little brother, you owe me one. I could be sleepin' in a warm bed, happy as a sunned cat."

"I didn't ask you to come out here."

Hoss pursed his lips. "Yes, you did, little brother, and you know it."

Joe moved at last, turning to stare at him. "What're you talkin' about?"

"When you weren't in your bed, I knew where you'd be," the big man said. "You been comin' up here for years, every time you got somethin' eatin' at you. You gonna tell me what it is this time?"

Joe hesitated. "Adam…Adam read me a poem."

"He what?"

Joe shifted again until he was facing him. "I got Adam a book for Christmas. I…gave it to him early 'cause he was looking for something new to read. There was this poem in it…." He glanced at the stone behind him. "It was like Mama was speaking to me…."

"What'd she say?"

Joe closed his eyes and recited.

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'_When I am dead, my dearest,_

_Sing no sad songs for me;_

_Plant thou no roses at my head,_

_Nor shady cypress tree:_

_Be the green grass above me_

_With showers and dewdrops wet;_

_And if thou wilt, remember,_

_And if thou wilt, forget._

_I shall not see the shadows,_

_I shall not feel the rain;_

_I shall not hear the nightingale_

_Sing on, as if in pain:_

_And dreaming through the twilight_

_That doth not rise nor set,_

_Haply I may remember,_

_And haply may forget.'_

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There was a long period of silence. "Do you think that's what Mama's done?" Joe asked.

He was kind of at a loss. "Do I think…what?"

"That she's...forgotten me?"

For a moment, Hoss was propelled back to a time he'd rather forget. He saw his little brother standin' right here on this spot, by his mama's fresh dug grave.

"You know what I think, Little Joe?"

Little Joe shook his head.

"I think Mama couldn't never forget you, no matter how bright and beautiful Heaven is." He held his brother's gaze. "You know why I think that?"

A tear trailed down his brother's cheek. "Why?" Joe asked as he blinked away more.

Hoss rose and walked over to his brother Kneeling, he placed two fingers on his coat, just above Little Joe's heart. "The words that there poet penned will last until the writin' fades or someone takes a pencil and erases them. Your mama looked at you the day you were born and wrote down everythin' there was to know about you. _ Those_ words ain't gonna fade, and there sure enough ain't nothin' on God's green earth can erase them, little brother, 'cause Marie didn't write them on any paper. She wrote them on her heart."

When he held out his hand, Joe took it and climbed to his feet.

"Ready to go home?" the big man asked.

Little Joe's eyes were shinin', but not with tears. A smile broke out on that lonely little boy's face.

"I am now," Joe said. "Since I know Mama's comin' home with me."


End file.
